Problem Customer That Makes Me Want To Scream.

[Dwight]

I'm with ya Gary, . . . one bad customer can ruin your whole day.

I'd just give him back his money, . . . toss the holster in a drawer, . . . sooner or later a buddy will need one, . . . he'll be tickled pink when you joke and tell him you need 59 cents for the hardware, . . . but he can have the holster for free.

We've all been in your boat, . . . it ain't fun, . . . but with Ebay being what it is, . . . get your holster back, . . . give him his money back, . . . go on down the road.

May God bless,

Dwight

[Boriqua]

My mental health is worth far more than 80 bucks and your issue would have me insane. Im with all the rest .. refund his money and make him go away and sleep easy. I wasnt always that way but as I get older I just want to live as problem free as possible.

I saw someone on a youtube channel suggest applying denatured alcohol to finished holsters to aid in break in. he said be generous! I dont know but I would prefer if people didnt add alcohol to my finished product. I wonder if that is what may have caused the problem. You will never know so dont sweat it.

[LumpenDoodle2]

Just give him his money back "he aint wurf it", and get your holster back, if possible. If it is so unuseable, then he shouldn't mind.

You could always take another tact, by mentioning that you need to see the damage to work out how it happened and prevent it happening to other holsters. If he's honest, he won't mind sending it back, if he's coming the cowboy, then he'll be reluctant. Especially if he has abused the holster in some way.

As to ebay, take no nonsense from them. I had a case of someone bidding on an item, and not taking the time to read the details. Their opening gambit was to aggressively demand a part or full refund or they would leave negative feedback (something ebay say they do not tolerate). I spoke to ebay, and explained the situation, and they agreed I was not at fault, but unbeknown to me, a couple of hours later, the decided to refund the buyers money and get the item sent back to me.

I blew my top at them, as the buyer had broken ebay rules by threatening me with negative feedback. Ebay backed down and let me keep the money and the item.

Still annoyed that they took no action about the buyer, but that's ebay for you.

[Ulfberht Leather Works]

I learned my lesson about a year ago. Ended up with a customer who could not read and thought he was ordering two of a custom item, even though exolicitly listed as single units. He wrote to me and said he could not afford them as pair which he believed he was receiving. He then proceeded to advise that "upon further inspection.... blah blah blah.... busted rivet.... blah blah blah" in tertiary emails days later. I refused to refund him at that point and vowed to repair it, which resulted in a very negative response litterally wishing a "curse" on me and his negative "review" on my shop page. PayPal refunded him anyways and made me pay return shipping. It cost me days of work, money and honestly a great bit of anger over all of it, NOT WORTH IT!

[Sonydaze]

Life is too short to keep dealing with a**hats. I would have the holster returned then refund him including return shipping. Then I would not communicate further. It leaves him in the weakest position to complain and without a 'stolen' holster.

Hang the holster on your wall to remind you to appreciate the many great people you deal with.

[GaryNunn]

Update: The buyer returned the holster, and it was cracked around every edge possible. The leather had clearly been intentionally bent back and squeezed to the point it cracked. He sent it via Fed Ex, bypassing the Ebay return process, and demanded that I reimburse his cost, that I replace the holster and also send the replacement to him Fed Ex overnight - which would have been more expensive than the holster itself.

I refunded his money and sent him a polite message that I couldn't replace the holster and I thought it was in our mutual best interest to simply issue a refund.

This guy is PISSED.

He's threatening to sue me for time and expenses, as well as leave me negative feedback and file "fraud" complaints with Ebay. I shouldn't have replied, but I reminded him that I also have the ability to leave feedback for him as well, so now he's also threatening to sue me for defamation if I leave him negative feedback.

-> Picture me doing an eye roll and double facepalm here.

I'm not worried, I'm actually amused.

He's blocked from buying again.

lesson learned.

[artwithapulse]

Amazing that someone can get so upset over $80 - especially when the seller has attempted a few times to make ammends.

Some people just need to stick with plastic products, hey?!

[bob21804]

Gary, sounds like you handled this well. I always try to remember to "respond", but not "react", to people like that. He'll lose interest and unfortunately become someone else's problem soon.

[fredk]

I can add little to what has already been said.

I've had customers like that. I've done over 10,000 deals on ebay, and have had about 10 to 15 like this messer of yours.

As for the threats ~ I've had some too. I reported them to ebay immediately and they banned the buyer. I call it a 'pre-emptive strike'

[LumpenDoodle2]

If it was me, I'd pass the threatening messages on to ebay, as what he is doing is against ebay policy. You also don't know how many others he's bullied like this and got away with it.

Pass it on ebay purely to let them know what is going on. They need to know about this sort of thing, as otherwise, all they see is another seller, and a faulty item. It keeps yourself right if nothing else.

What I find slightly worrying is that someone has allowed this bampot with way too much unjustified aggression to have a gun, Leaving him in charge of a sharpened stick would be decidedly iffy for the world (IMHO).

Edited March 7, 2016 by LumpenDoodle2